Every comic I could find: DC/Marvel, Classics Illustrated (up until 12th grade so I could avoid reading the real thing), and even the Amar Chitra Katha comics from India (my neighborhood was all Jews and Indians so I would trade).

The only thing I wanted to be in life was a superhero. I was bitter and disappointed when I realized around the age of ten that they didn’t exist.

Why would people write about them if they weren’t true?

Like, I couldn’t expose myself to radiation in order to get super powers. But I was convinced I was from another planet, or a Greek god whose real parents would one day come down and tell me the truth.

I could picture it. Some angel appearing in my room, telling me I was special. Telling me, “With great power comes great responsibility!”

I was ready!

For awhile I told all of the kids in my neighborhood I was a Greek god and I lived on “that cloud!” and I would point. They would just bicycle away and I could hear them laugh.

As I said, no friends.

The reason the writers would write it is because superheroes are, in fact, true.

We’re a clumsy Clark Kent on the outside. And even the women and men we secretly love don’t know who we are on the inside.

We’re all blind like Matt Murdoch on the outside. But with super-radar and no fear on the inside.

Answer the questions below and you might not be a super hero, but you are on your way. It’s a long and treacherous journey. Many people die on their way to the top of the mountain.

The forces of evil will try and stop you.

These questions are the labyrinth to your powers. And then we can meet in our secret cave or justice league satellite and save the world together.

A) SECRET ORIGIN

Our lives are all stapled to the critical moments that changed who we are. The moments filled with so much pain we can’t forget them.

Some events: 9/11, going broke, getting a divorce, being rejected, failing at something we love, getting sick, and so on.

Every success is wrapped around a failure.

Superman’s planet blew up. Daredevil went blind, Dr. Strange lost the use of his hands, Batman’s parents were killed.

These moments define the heroes. If you think it doesn’t apply to real life I can just look at some real-life heroes.

Kurt Vonnegut was at the bombing of Dresden. Beethoven went deaf. Louis CK has had constant failures of his shows. Both Bobby Fischer and Howard Hughes were orphans who went completely insane. Washington lost every battle he was in before the Revolutionary War.

What moments make up your secret origin?

B) SECRET IDENTITY

We all have two stories. The story of who we are, deep inside.

Then there’s the story we actually tell.

For all of us there is a gap. For the self-help guru there might be the anti-depressants he or she takes.

For the business leader there might be the failure within his family, or the non-stop failures it took to get to where he is now.

I wore a suit and tie and pretended to be an expert when on TV But I felt like a talking buffoon talking with the other buffoons on CNBC.

People were in pain. They were stuck. They were losing everything. I was losing everything and lying about it.

But sometimes we have to define it for ourselves for the greater good.

I’m a fan of Hugh Macleod’s book, “Evil Plans”. We do our job, but deep down, secretly, there’s a blur…there’s a disconnect between what society wants and what we’re already up to.

Are you an artist? Do you have a business going on the side? Do you secretly want to do X, Y, and Z? Will you help the weak kid on the playground even if the cool kids make fun of you?

What’s your evil plan?

E) OUR SUPER TEAM

Even the Hulk, the total loner, had The Avengers. And Batman, also a loner, had the Justice League. Dr. Strange had The Defenders.

Hugh Jackman, who plays Wolverine, used to share a deck with mine, before I blew up and lost everything, including my home. 15 years ago he would play hide and seek with my 2 year old.

Wolverine is the ultimate loner in Marvel Comics and even he had the X-Men.

I have my super-friends. I have the people I work with who provide me support in every way.

Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Ted Leonsis, and a dozen others came out of the Home Brew Club in 1977 to start or co-found multi-billion dollar companies.

Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and a dozen others brought each other up to create the Pop Art Scene.

Who is in your scene? Who is your super team?

F) VALUES

“With Great Power comes Great Responsibility” – Spiderman

Each superhero has their set of values of what they do and will not do. How they will make their decisions.

I like the values expressed in “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz as a starting point.

Be Impeccable with My Word

Don’t Take Anything Personally

Don’t Make Assumptions

Always Do Your Best

In my recently started company, “Choose Yourself Media”, I have one rule above anything else:

Message Before Money.

The message is so much more important than picking up a dime in the street.

What are your values?

G) A NEMESIS

Is it someone at work? Is it the demon in your head that tells you “you’re not good enough?”

It is your parents? Or a boss? Or an internet troll?

Every Superman has a Lex Luthor. Every Batman has a Joker. Every Professor X has a Magneto.

But the nemesis isn’t really outside. It’s how you deal with it inside. You choose to be angry.

They can’t make you angry, or scared.

When someone makes you angry, part of you blocks. It stops the energy that keeps us alive and creative.

Learning how to let that energy pass through you, is the way to have more power than everyone else who is bogged down by their angers and frustrations and past hates.

How many people do we know who, even in old age, are bogged down by angers and betrayals that happened decades ago.

I call it “the list”. When I talk to these people they start shouting the list from years ago. But historical equals hysterical.

It’s these blocks INSIDE of us that prevent us from being the hero we can become.

You unleash the block by realizing everyone is dealing with their own internal issues.

You only have to worry about your blocks. Not their blocks.

Who is your nemesis?

H) A CAVE

Here’s a fact: If you are working on writing or art or whatever and you are interrupted, it takes your brain 20 minutes at least to get back into “flow”.

Superman had his Fortress of Solitude. Batman has the bat cave. The Justice League of America has a Satellite (built by Elon Musk probably) in SPACE.

The Fantastic Four had their own skyscraper.

Dr. Doom had his own castle. The X-Men have a school in Westchester!

Where is your cave?

I) A TEACHER

I love the story of “Stick”. In fact, we don’t really know his story.

Matt Murdoch is an orphan made blind by radioactive chemicals falling on his eyes when he pushes an old man out of the way of a truck.

The radioactivity gives him super heightened senses but he’s going crazy from all the super senses. He meets an old, blind pool player. Stick. Stick somehow has the same powers and knows how to use them.

Gradually Stick teaches him to use his powers. Just like Professor X teaches mutants to use their powers and Yoda teaches Luke and Batman teaches Robin.

Who are your teachers? They don’t have to be real. They can be virtual from the books you read and absorb. They can be the heroes you try and emulate.

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